California Biodiesel Roundtable

In January 2008 EFC9 convened the California Biodiesel Roundtable at Dominican University of California to help individual stakeholders and communities identify and resolve barriers to producing and using waste grease (used cooking oil) derived biodiesel.  To download the Final Biodiesel Roundtable Report click here. Please note: The Report BIOROUNDFIN.pdf is almost 8MB and therefore may take time to download on some computers.

African American Haircare Roundtables

EFC9 will continue to hold African American Haircare roundtables to discuss concerns raised within the health and environmental communities about ingredients found in ethic hair care products and to establish a set of actions that would educate and engage the African American community. In general, the Roundtables explore scientific data on the health impacts of certain personal care products and review current policy.  They also provide opportunities for salon owners, workers, health and environmental advocates, policy makers and regulators, and product manufacturers to share and exchange information addressing these concerns and to work collaboratively.

EFC9 serves as a member of the California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative and as a member of the National Nail Salon Network. exploring opportunities for nail salon owners to undertake source reduction, pollution prevention and energy conservation.

Greener Dominican Taskforce

EFC9 is working with the Greener Dominican Taskforce to develop a long term plan to green the campus.  The Taskforce includes faculty from the Business and Environmental Studies programs and other staff from around the University.

City of Los Angeles Green Business Program


EFC9 is working closely with the City of Los Angeles as they develop their Green Business Program.  EFC9 has attended meetings and participated in conference calls to provide consultation with the Environmental Affairs Department, the City Council, the Environmental Affairs Commission and the Mayor's Office on the development and direction of the program.  The proposed program is currently under review by the City of Los Angeles Office of the Budget and is expected to be launched in the next fiscal year.

Dominican's 'green' MBA draws grant, finance center

From the Marin Independent Journal
Jim Staats


A new "green" master's of business administration program at Dominican University helped bring an Environmental Finance Center to the San Rafael campus, as well as a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant to run the center.

The $222,000 federal grant will help support several environmental initiatives to be run out of the new center, which relocated to the campus on May 1, according to school officials.

The Environmental Finance Center is part of a nine-member network of centers throughout the United States and is funded in part by the EPA. Each center is associated with a local university. Dominican's center serves Region 9, which includes California, Hawaii, Arizona and Nevada.

Sarah Diefendorf, the center's executive director who oversees a staff of five, said Dominican "seemed like the absolute best place" to relocate the center, which has been at California State University, East Bay (formerly California State University at Hayward) since 1994.

"We probably were never the best fit at Hayward," she said. "It's really related to the university bringing in the green MBA. It's just a good time to move over."

The school's "green" MBA program is scheduled to begin this fall, with instruction of traditional business principles with an emphasis on sustainability.

Diefendorf said the funding received is part of an annual seed grant distributed evenly across the nationwide centers.

"It's never a guarantee year to year," she said.

Diefendorf said the center's new campus site, along with Dominican's new MBA program, will benefit the center in its study of business sustainability at all Bay Area universities.

Projects conducted through the center include tribal waste reduction, efforts to promote environmentally friendly behavior in the television industry, a statewide biodiesel roundtable, a proposal to establish a Center for Sustainability at the university and more.

 

EFC9 Updates Site

With a new move comes the launch of the EFC9.org's redesigned site. The main links, located in the top navigation bar, link to different site sections. Links of importance to the section are located on the left. It is planned to have the site updated more frequently, and as always, with information associated with events and projects when pertinent.

We hope you enjoy our new look and we look forward to providing information that's relevant and easily located.